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From Academic Probation to School of Distinction 
A school becomes academically successful when it begins asking two big questions--what are our students' needs, and how do we meet them? 
By Dan Cohan


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<P><H1>From Academic Probation to School of Distinction</H1> 
<P>By Dan Cohan
<P>Ask students, teachers, parents, and community members to define what students need, and you will get many answers. Each will conflict with the others in some way. I learned this very quickly four years ago when I joined the Pomona High School community in Arvada, CO, and met with various members of each of these groups. From perceived academic and social deficiencies to severe emotional distress and even indolence, there is no lack of well-intentioned opinion and prescription for the principal on any given day. The perceived ailment, and subsequent prognosis, is compounded in severity when the school is struggling, as was the case with Pomona after the 2004-05 school year. 
<P>*****SARAH, ANCHOR THE SCHOOL PROFILE BOX TO THIS PARAGRAPH***** On the basis of the Colorado accreditation formula, Pomona was on "academic watch" after declining achievement scores in 2003-04, and then "academic probation" after further declines in 2004-05. Since 2004-05, Pomona has been accredited as high performing for three years in a row and has achieved some of the highest growth scores in the state of Colorado for large high schools in reading, writing, and math. Just recently, Pomona was one of only five middle and high schools to earn the School of Distinction honor by the Colorado of Department of Education. We take pride in effectively "raising the tide" of learning for all students, especially our subgroups who often underperform. These results embolden us and validate our work, providing momentum to continue what we began in fall 2005.
<P>When we were on academic probation, it would have been easy to panic and ask, "How do we get out of this mess?" Instead, we focused on two more-essential and less-reactive questions: What are our students' needs? and How do we meet them?
<P>The questions matter, I believe, in terms of the results you get. These questions not only got us out of trouble, but are central to our growth in student achievement. Keeping our focus on these two questions and striving to answer them with curricula, strategies, structures, programs, and interventions have provided the long-term growth in learning and culture that we envisioned four years ago. Our plan and strategies were not revolutionary, they were not reactionary or one-time fixes, and they did not require miracles or superheroes. Instead, they are tenets and practices for decision making and action, and they are replicable at any time. Although these practices seem obvious, even prosaic, the results can be significant. 
<P><B>What Are the Needs? Your Current Reality</B>
<P>Understanding your school's current state is the most obvious place to start in any improvement effort, and it's absolutely essential when assessing the needs of students. Mike Schmoker calls this the "brutal facts" (Schmoker, 2006, p. 1); I prefer the term "current reality." Four years ago, our entire school staff spent the better part of two days of professional development at the beginning of the year analyzing everything that defined Pomona's current reality, from the obvious--student achievement results on the state assessment and ACT--to the not-so-obvious--the percentage of students and parents "opting out" of these tests; results of surveys on our students' feelings about their school, teachers, safety, and culture; our school mission, vision, and values; and the extent to which our structures supported student learning.  Every effort was made to create ownership and "buy-in"; I held class meetings with students at the beginning of the year and "chats with the principal" during parent-teacher conferences. *****SARAH, ANCHOR "BOX 1" TO THIS PARAGRAPH***** 
<P>This analysis has evolved over time in frequency and depth. On a macro level, it occurs at least twice per year. On a micro level, it occurs virtually daily in our ongoing progress monitoring efforts. Our staff members, students, and community members have evolved from a subjective complacency about our strengths and weaknesses to a clear, objective understanding of what's working and why. 
<P>At our school, this understanding of our current reality has the greatest impact on addressing individual student needs in what we call PLC/content teams. Much has been written and celebrated about the positive effect schools can have on student achievement if they operate as professional learning communities (PLCs) (Dufour & Eaker, 1998). As we redefined our purpose, values, and goals and began operating more like a PLC, our content teacher teams began studying the data that reflected individual students' performance in individual teachers' classrooms. 
<P>When each teacher begins comparing how his or her students performed in comparison to other teachers' students, issues of trust and efficacy inevitably arise. We overcame some of this through coaching and by assuring teachers that the impetus behind this important work was not evaluative, but instead intended to maximize student learning by meeting individual student needs.
<P>*****SARAH, PLEASE SET THIS PARAGRAPH AS INDENTED***** "Our American History team has worked together for a long time and has become friends through our work. When it came time to compare results, I think we all were nervous that we would be judged. Once you see that everyone has the same struggles you have--and wants better results as much as you do--it's liberating. You quickly move on to problem solving, and, as a result, we have seen dramatic improvements in all of our students' achievements." 
<P>*****SARAH, WE'D LIKE TO RUN THE EPIGRAPH (THIS LINE) FLUSH RIGHT***** --Barbara Taylor, social studies teacher and department chair
<P>We have effectively "popped" what I call the "bubble of oblivion"--the antiquated, subjective evaluation of our success in educating students that defined our past. This evolution takes time, but now our teachers routinely disaggregate formal and informal student achievement data to the classroom and individual student level and compare these data to the grade level or content team scores. Understanding this current reality of student learning and individual needs has created ownership and demand throughout the school community, inciting the desire to answer the second question, how do we meet students' needs? *****SARAH, ANCHOR "BOX 2" TO THIS PARAGRAPH*****
<P><B>(More) Practice Makes (More) Perfect</B>
<P>Much of the professional development in our school district has been focused on providing the best "core instruction" based on what Robert Marzano calls a "guaranteed and viable" curriculum (Marzano, 2003, p. 22.) This work has provided a framework for my administrative team and our instructional coach to work with our departments and PLC/content teams to ensure we are providing the best core instruction in the classroom. This work aligns beautifully to the response to intervention (RTI) model and, true to RTI form, seems to be meeting the needs of around 75% of the student population. It became clear to us early on, and remains abundantly clear today, that to meet the additional needs of the remaining 25 percent, a collaboratively developed system of interventions was needed. 
<P>At Pomona, the road to interventions has indeed been bumpy, with several successes and a few failures. However, the teachers, counselors, and administrators who comprise the task force in charge of our various intervention programs have stuck to its original philosophy: targeted instruction that students cannot opt out of will meet the additional learning needs of most if not all of our neediest students. The successful interventions at Pomona are characterized by targeted instruction, taught by teachers or other experts in the area of need, and required for students who need them. These interventions have evolved over four years and include:
<UL><LI>* Jump Start, a mandatory summer program for incoming ninth graders that addresses individual needs in reading, writing, and math. </LI>
<LI>* 9th/10th Grade Intervention, a pull-out program during the school day for 9th and 10th graders who perform below proficiency in reading, writing, math, or science. </LI>
<LI>* Pomona Labs Program, a program that provides additional assistance in the four core disciplines to any student, either on a drop-in basis or when the student is required to attend by the classroom teacher. </LI>
<LI>* Week 37, a program borrowed from other high schools in the district and tweaked to be a true "credit saving" opportunity for students. Students who are identified as not meeting standards at the end of the year are required to continue their school year into the summer and are retaught and reassessed. </LI>
<LI>* Study Hall, a mandatory period for 9th and 10th graders, gives us easy access to students who require additional targeted interventions.</LI></UL>
<P><B>Put Your Money Were Your Maxim Is</B>
<P>Clearly, we would not be able to implement or sustain a full range of interventions if we did not hold as one of our core values that resources should be focused on them above all else. This is much easier said than done. Recently, our district was unsuccessful in passing a much-needed mill-levy increase and bond initiative, and this will strain already tight budgets even further. However, I do not anticipate much support for cuts to the programs at Pomona that address specific student needs. When the first line of our mission statement includes "ensuring the highest levels of learning," it is difficult to justify cutting or reducing support for proven techniques. Instead, creative allocation of resources is a must. Some examples:
<UL><LI>* Such interventions as Jump Start and Week 37 are funded through our at-risk student support account as well as donations, school store money, and drop-out prevention grants.</LI>
<LI>* PLC/content team release time (full or half days) is supported with staff development money, combined classes, and class coverage by administrators. </LI>
<LI>* Intervention classes and study hall are possible through the support of our regular teaching staff: each teacher gives up two planning periods per week. </LI>
<LI>* The Pomona Attendance Program/Student Support Center was created by assigning one assistant principal to lead a small team of support personnel. This assistant principal's other responsibilities were reassigned. </LI></UL>
<P><B>Keep It Simple and Monitor It</B>
<P>Labeling Pomona as "data guided" would be an understatement. Just this semester alone, we have analyzed state assessment and growth data, ACT and PLAN scores, "Make Your Voice Heard" results, Acuity progress monitoring data, school accountability reports, AYP, grade data and failure rates, attendance information, college remediation rates, and class survey results. These data are often disaggregated to the individual student level. However, we are also cognizant of the dangers of "paralysis by analysis" and so we adhere tightly to a motto: keep it simple and monitor it. We learned this lesson the hard way our first year, as we were wallowing in data under the intense weight of academic probation. Fortunately, we broke through our paralysis, adopted the keep it simple and monitor it core value, and focused on best practices that aligned with our mission and values: purposeful reading and discussion, problem solving and inquiry learning, and writing to proficiency and constant progress monitoring. The same motto can be used in any school that's embarking on a new initiative: plan out how you will keep it simple and monitor it, especially in the first semester and year 
<P>*****SARAH, PLEASE SET THIS PARAGRAPH AS INDENTED***** "When Pomona fell on to probation, it was a crisis, and one that struck our very core. As a Pomona graduate, I felt deeply the sense of collective failure that came over the building. We quickly got over the despair and moved on to what we needed to do. We found out right away that many teachers throughout the building shared our desire to improve reading and writing, and that as English teachers we weren't in this alone."	
<P>*****SARAH, WE'D LIKE TO RUN THE EPIGRAPH (THIS LINE) FLUSH RIGHT***** --Tim Vialpando, Pomona English Teacher
<P>We believe that we will continue to see gains in student learning if our work is focused on meeting students' needs, and we never stray far from analyzing our current reality, experimenting with and allocating resources to interventions for students, and always keeping this work manageable and measurable. Indeed, our most poignant reality is knowing that academic probation or school of distinction is always just a year or two away and that these labels depend on each individual student.
<P><B>References</B>
<P>Schmoker, M. (2006). Results Now: How we can achieve unprecedented improvements in teaching and learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
<P>Dufour, R., & Eaker, B. (1998). Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
<P>Marzano, R. J. (2003) What works in schools: Translating research into action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 
<BR><BR><BR>
<P>Dan Cohan (<a href="mailto: dcohan@jeffco.k12.co.us ">dcohan@jeffco.k12.co.us</A>) is the principal of Pomona High School in Arvada, CO.




*****SCHOOL PROFILE*****
<P><B>Pomona High School</B><BR>
Location: Arvada, CO<BR>
Grades: 9-12 <BR>
Enrollment: 1,590<BR>
Community: Suburban<BR>
Demographic: 74% White, 20% Hispanic, 4% Asian, 2% Black; 21% free and reduced-price lunch<BR>
Administrative Team: 1 principal, 4 assistant principals<BR>
Faculty: 100<BR>

*****BOX 1*****
<P>Involving instructional coaches and teacher-parent leadership teams in planning this work creates more ownership and buy-in.

*****BOX 2*****
<P>Remain firm on your expectation for teachers to disaggregate data to the class and student level, but provide support and time. Some suggestions:
<UL><LI>* Initially provide hard copies of teacher data, then move to electronic versions. </LI>
<LI>* Have teachers meet in content teams and begin by posting the team's results. Then allow each teacher to silently reflect on his or her results compared to the team's results. </LI>
<LI>* Provide nonthreatening, guiding questions to promote dialogue, then guide the conversation toward a discussion of best practices and strategies. </LI></UL>
From the outset, provide individual support and sensemaking from your instructional coach and your administrative team.
